More Federal Subpoenas In Hartford Charter School Probe

HARTFORD — City and state educators said Monday that they had been served with subpoenas by a federal grand jury examining the expenditure of millions of dollars in public money by the troubled charter school management company FUSE.

The subpoenas were issued Friday to the Hartford Public Schools and the state Department of Education, both of which have had extensive dealings with the state-subsidized FUSE, short for the Family Urban Schools of Excellence.

FUSE was created in 2012 as a management company that used public and private money to take over failing, inner-city public schools and operate them as public charter schools. FUSE's management agreements with public school systems gave it wide discretion over spending on salaries, rents, curriculum, equipment and other items.

A series of embarrassing disclosures in the past month appears to have crippled FUSE, costing the organization all its management business, worth more than $1 million a year. The closely affiliated Jumoke Academy fired FUSE as manager of its three Hartford charter schools. Schools in Bridgeport and New Haven severed ties with FUSE, and educators in Louisiana, concerned about events in Connecticut, pulled FUSE from a charter school set to open in Baton Rouge next month.

The subpoena to Hartford Public Schools demands all city records since 2012 related to FUSE founder and former CEO Michael M. Sharpe, FUSE, Jumoke Academy and Milner Elementary School. Hartford hired FUSE in 2012 to turn around Milner, but the relationship soured and ultimately ended when a fall 2013 assessment showed that, in spite of $1 million in additional spending by FUSE at Milner, students continued to read at rock-bottom levels.

The Hartford subpoena, which the city released in response to a Freedom on Information Act request, seeks an array of financial documents, including expense reports, deposited checks, memos and email — including records of all purchases of furniture, computers and others supplies for Milner school.

The grand jury specifically asked for "the payroll records, including personnel files and records of payment" for two Jumoke employees, both of whom are related to Sharpe.

The state Department of Education would not immediately release a copy of its subpoena.

"As part of the investigation into FUSE and Michael Sharpe, the Department did receive a subpoena," said Kelly Donnelly, the department's director of communications. "We have been assured that the Department is not a subject of this investigation."

The state Department of Education opened its own investigation of FUSE and the closely related system of Jumoke Academy charter schools on June 30 — a blow to a company that had previously counted Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and members of his administration as supporters.

The state's investigation followed disclosures that Sharpe had criminal convictions in Connecticut and California and had falsely claimed to have a doctorate in education. Sharpe resigned as FUSE's CEO, but FUSE would not disclose details about Sharpe's severance or a lease that allowed him to live in a second-floor apartment at a Jumoke-owned building on Asylum Hill.

There were subsequent disclosures about other FUSE employees who had records of criminal convictions, including an employee in Bridgeport who was on a sex offender registry.

Sharpe founded FUSE to oversee the three Jumoke Academy schools in Hartford. The state has provided $53 million to the charter operation since the 1997 founding of Jumoke, and the formation of FUSE more recently.

It became apparent that FUSE's fortunes had turned earlier this month when Hartford school officials decided to curtail the management group's role at the Milner school, expressing concern about muddled curriculum, hiring practices and test scores.